Joshua Green, soldier and co-op shoemaker

Born in 1836, two years after his brother, Henry, Joshua Green grew up in the Bow Street home of Henry and Abigail Green. Like his brother, he must have absorbed the anti-slavery sentiments of his parents, active in the abolitionist movement in Stoneham. As a news reporter later wrote, "This spirit animated [him] in 1861 when he enlisted in defence of the Union."

Joshua had been 9 and his brother, Henry, 11, when they lost their father. Both of them, however, had learned to handle a rifle. And they must have been good shots. As fate would have it, both Joshua and Henry, as well as their cousin, Stephen (whom I wrote about in previous columns) found themselves in the 2nd Company of Massachusetts Sharpshooters.

I could find few details about Joshua's service during the war. After two years in the 2nd Company, he was transferred to the 3rd Regiment Veterans Reserve Corps, as had been his cousin, Stephen, who had then served as a nurse. Perhaps Joshua, too, had fallen ill and, recuperating, finished his term in a different role.

After the Civil War ended, Joshua returned home to his family. In 1858, he had married Joanna Chamberlain of Somerville. A year later, a son, Henry, had been born, and two years later, at the start of the Civil War, a daughter, Emma.

His soldiering days behind him, Joshua now resumed the common trade of the town. In the 1880 United States Census he is listed as a shoemaker. In the 1884 Stoneham directory, he is listed as a shoe-cutter.

But there was more to his career than working as a tradesman. Joshua Green was also a central player in an innovative labor movement sweeping the country, the creation of worker-owned industries. As a skilled shoemaker and organizer, Green won the trust of his fellow workers, who elected him as a director and treasurer of the Stoneham Cooperative Shoe Company, the first of four worker-owned factories.

It was a remarkable social-economic experiment which lasted for 15 years and included not only shoe factories but a stitching company and a store. In these companies, the men and women purchased factories, formed cooperatives, and managed all aspects of the business, including sales and distribution. Earning good wages, they supervised themselves and shared company profits. As shareholders, they would meet annually to elect directors and agents.

In 1886 a Boston Globe reporter wrote: “It is indeed a fact that co-operation has succeeded in Stoneham.” The writer went on to describe how each of the cooperatives was structured. “In all these shops the men say a great saving is made by having no foremen. Stockholders do not have to be watched.”

When, after a long period of poor health, Joshua Green died in October of 1898, the town of Stoneham turned out in force to recognize not only a war hero, but a leader who helped merge the interests of business and labor.

As the writer of his obituary noted, “Mr. Green’s life as a citizen [was] marked by an earnest desire to do his full duty in all that pertained to the interests of his native town.”

Among the crowd that spilled out onto the lawn at 10 Bow Street were some 50 members of the Odd Fellows lodge, along with 40 veterans from Post 75 of the Grand Old Republic. The pastor of the Methodist Church officiated at the funeral. Then, after the casket was carried to Lindenwood, the Odd Fellows’ presiding officer and chaplain held a gravesite service.

Nineteenth months earlier, Stoneham had said goodbye to Joshua's brother, the thrice-wounded veteran of numerous Civil War battles. Now it was saying good bye to him, also a war hero. But more, a devoted shoe-cutter who made it his cause to improve the lives of working people.

Ben Jacques is the author of If the Shoe Fits: Stories of Stoneham Then & Now, available at the Book Oasis, 311 Main St. in Stoneham.